A catchy phrase if you ask me…but, it is associted with what appears to be a health based decision to correct the course of years of bad eating habits and the illnesses associated with those bad habits. I know that many readers will just see the program as that….a program. It’s not. It’s about altering your food intake with foods commonly found in our food supply. It’s not about buying anything from any company in order to gain access to the “secrets” to better living. The documentary of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is about a guy who decides to embark on a journey of cleansing his body of the toxins that have built up over years of eating foods that we know are bad for us but are also readily available. The guy’s name is Joe. Joe is Australian but has been like so many fat Americans who have been tricked or simply are too lazy to make an effort to prepare food that is good for them and instead they revel in simply eating what has been made easily available.

In the Western diet, we eat “meat and taters” in addition to a host of highly processed foods. Meat and potatos don’t have all the micro-nutrients that we need. The problem is that we loose micro-nutrients on a daily bases because our bodies use them to maintain our health.

If you take a dead piece of meat and let it lay out in the open on a clean surface, it will beging to decay and smell as it rots. It’s no longer part of a system that can kill germs and bacteria and repair that meat it as it ages. That system requires nutrition to do these things and keep the meat in a state of good repair. Because that meat is no longer receiving nutrient based repair it rots. Our bodies are the same. We are essentially a piece of meat that is out in the open and living in an environment that is constantly attacking us on a microbial level. It’s part of the design of the universe and no amount of sanitizing will stop it.

The answer is to feed the system that is designed to take nutrients in and use them to maintain the our health. What do we feed it? Sugar, salt, fat, phosphoric acid, Aspartame, red dye number xxx and a host of other chemicals and preservatives that most cannot even pronounce let alone recognize the benefit from. Most of the chemicals come from research that is designed to create something that resembles food and tastes good and keeps us coming back for more. We have become accustomed to eating things that aren’t really healthy. Think about antifreeze for a moment, it’s a known fact that animals like it and it tastes sweet. It’s also known that consuming it will kill them by shutting down their kidneys. So what do we do? We make it a point to keep them from drinking it. It’s a chemical that is known to be harmful if consumed. It’s a simple analysis but if an animal consumes antifreeze and they die a few hours later the connection is obvious. What if it took weeks to see the result of death? Would the connection be so evident?

But what about all those chemicals created to make what looks like food and taste like food to us? Where are the studies and where do those studies that show the health risks and benefits from consuming these man made chemicals come from? Many people think that the FDA or Food and Drug Administration has their own test labs where testing is conducted to validate chemicals used in food. There are no labs used for such purposes. The same goes for the pharmecutical drug companies as well. So how would the FDA be able to determine if these chemicals should be approved for human consumption? It’s pretty simple and alarming. The company that creates a product for human consumption must submit a report that proves it is safe for such. I don’t know about you but I think that if I were going to create someting that I wanted to sell to the public and the approving agency wanted a report confirming that the product was safe, I’d be sure to deliver a report that says it is. If I had to get that report from a third party, I’d be sure to hire one that will confirm my product is safe. After all I’m hiring them. I don’t know of any third party that just tests these chemicals as a kind guesture of good will. Effectivley, this is a situation where the fox is guarding the hen house. It just doesn’t make sense.

So, back to those aproved delicious chemicals and preservatives. What are they really doing for us in terms of nourshing us and providing the micro-nutrients we need to stay healthy? Based on the condition of so many people who aren’t in the best of health in westerized societies, I’d say not a whole lot and this is where Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead comes into the picture for me. The documentary covers two people who do what they call a reboot of their systems and they consume only green juice that has none of the chemicals and all the nutrients that the body really needs. This cleansing gives their bodies time to flush all the chemicals/toxins out and they loose a significant amount of weight as a side benefit. Their health problems subside and they become “rebooted”. Their was another person in the documentary who had suffered from migrane headaches and once the detoxified on the green juice reboot diet she no longer had the headaches.

The story doesn’t end here but this is part of what I am learning about and I hope that you find the drive to check out the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.” I did and it has forever changed my view on what I am eating and how it affects me. My current situation is unique and obtaining a juice only diet is a little out of the question as I am living in anotherpart of the world but I will be returning home soon and I anticipate taking the same steps to a better life. For now, I am eating mostly vegetables and drinking fresh vegetable juice as much as I can so I will be ready when I get home for a reboot. Check the documentary out, I think you will be glad you did.